Paleolithic

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

adj. Of or relating to the cultural period of the Stone Age beginning with the earliest chipped stone tools, about 750,000 years ago, until the beginning of the Mesolithic Period, about 15,000 years ago.

n. The Paleolithic Period. Also called Old Stone Age. See Usage Note at Three Age system.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. A period that lasted from two and a half million years ago to 10,000 BC; the Old Stone Age.

adj. Of or referring to the Old Stone Age (the Paleolithic period or Paleolithic age).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

adj. Of or pertaining to an era marked by early stone implements. The Paleolithic era (as proposed by Lubbock) includes the earlier half of the “Stone Age;” the remains belonging to it are for the most part of extinct animals, with relics of human beings.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Characterized by the existence of ancient and roughly finished stone implements.

Examples

Archaeologists use the terms Paleolithic and Neolithic to refer to earlier and later epochs of human prehistory, which can be distinguished by the types of artifacts they left behind, especially the types of stone tools they used.

Men write of and wonder at the strange gap between what are called the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages, that is, between the ages when the spearheads and ax and arrowheads were of stone chipped roughly into shape, and the age of stone even-edged and smoothly polished.

Emory's Armelagos said this work might help settle debates over the so-called Paleolithic diets, which periodically become trendy, advocating little more than wild meat, seafood, a few nuts, and vegetables.

After the Ice aims to be a narrative of ancient lives rather than a compendium of artifacts, so Mithen places the reader in the company of a time-traveling observer, John Lubbock, who brings on his adventures a copy of Prehistoric Times, the influential textbook by his Victorian namesake that introduced the terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic."